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Ritual Magic
Ritual Magic in GURPS is both a system and a skill and should not be confused with Magic Rituals, a component of basic spell casting.Basic Set pg 237 The system requires the learning of the Ritual Magic or Thaumatology skill. Ritual Magic (skill) Ritual Magic (IQ/Very Hard) is a skill whose details have changed from 3e to 4e. * In 3e it had No Default and Must Specialize as criteria. * In 4e it has Religious Ritual (same)-6 as its default though it retains the Must Specialize requirement.B218, B242 "The equivalent skill for the more direct, flashy magic of fantasy is Thaumatology; knowledge of religious rites associated with a tradition is Religious Ritual." In both versions Ritual Magic specialties default to one another at -5. The Wildcard Skill equivalents are College!, Magic!, Theurgy! (Power Investiture), and Wizardry! though each wildcard skill has advantages and disadvantages when compared with the Ritual Magic skill. Ritual Magic (system) in 3e Ritual Magic appeared in GURPS Spirits and was a generalized version of GURPS Voodoo's magic system and was not dependent on mana. Related advantages were: * Mystic Symbol (10 points/level): A mystic symbol is an object that acts as a focus for your will.GURPS Thaumatology page 124 changed the way Mystic Symbols were modeled. * Ritual Adept (10 points/level): One can ignore the need for some or all of the components of ritual magic. For each level in this advantage (up to a maximum of three), a person can ignore the need for one ritual magic component, chosen when they perform the ritual.GURPS Thaumatology page 123 effectively replaced Ritual Adept with Path/Book Adept. * Ritual Aptitude (1 point/level) A person is particularly gifted in performing ritual magic. Most people have a -5 penalty to skill when performing rituals, but each level of this advantage buys off 1 point of penalty, up to a maximum of 5 levels, which allows the person to perform ritual magic at no penalty.Ritual Aptitude was woven into Magery: "Non-mages can work Path/Book magic – but not well! They’re at -5 on all ritual rolls." - GURPS Thaumatology page 123. Ritual Magic (system) in 4e Magic use depends on a single “core skill,” typically Ritual MagicBasic Set pg 218 or Thaumatology Basic Set pg 225. Each college of magic is an IQ/Very Hard “college skill” or “path” that defaults to the core skill at -6. College skills have the core skill as a prerequisite and may never exceed the core skill. The main difference from normal magic is ritual mages can cast spells at default. Each spell is a Hard technique with a default to the associated college skill. For each prerequisite the spell or its prerequisites would have in the standard system, the default is at a cumulative -1 (e.g., a spell with one prerequisite that itself has one prerequisite defaults to college skill-2). To raise a spell past its default level, the mage must have at least one point in the college skill, but he can ignore the spell’s prerequisites under the standard system. Spells cannot exceed the associated college skill. Magery adds to core skill, college skills, and spells. In a setting where standard and ritual magic coexist, normal Magery and Ritual Magery are separate advantages. Additional Material * GURPS Thaumatology * Paths and Books - also known as Ritual Book Path References See also *Technique Mastery Category:Rules Category:Skills Category:Thaumatology